Our Christmas Celebration

Merry Christmas!!  Even though we said it to each other on Saturday (our celebration day), the meaning was the same!

 

Everyone was all smiles as the smell of Jessi's homemade cinnamon rolls filled the house and we prepared for our Christmas Day Celebration!!

 

The Savages and the Smiths arrived right on time - and we moved right to the coffee and cinnamon rolls - yum - Jessi does a fantastic job on these and everyone was smacking their lips!!

And then it was time to open presents!!  Once again we had the "Opening" chair and Parker quickly got the hang of it - you called his name and he would crawl right up on that chair with a big smile!

Wasn't it only last year that we were buying toys for Rayna???  Probably not - but it sure did seem strange for her to just open clothes and boots and slippers and volleyball items!

Kenzie was all smiles on everything she opened - especially the dolls!

Jaime had my name this year and I received a wine rack, wine pourers and stoppers, a beautiful pair of silver earrings and a black cape!  Glenn bought me an IPOD Shuffle (I already have an IPOD but I wanted just a smaller version to put all of my Christmas CD's on - and I've already started the task of downloading all of them to my computer - a major task!!) and a laptop holder - a lot of times I'll take my laptop to the lower level and use it while we watch TV and I discovered last night that the holder is WONDERFUL!

I bought the 3 little ones these cute lanterns - and I even put batteries in them before I wrapped them - they were a big hit of course and I guess I should have gotten a couple for Kylan and Evan too!

Both boys are into Angry Birds - don't they look cute in their new hats?

This year instead of doing small flip books for the little ones, I did posters!  They turned out really cute and each one's background was a different color!

We got both Kylan and Evan remote controlled vehicles - Evan's was a truck and Kylan's was one that flipped over - I'm not sure who liked them more, the boys or their dads!!

Our 3 beautiful girls!! (NOTE:  Not only did Jessi and Jaime have on the same shirts, but Rayna's matched Jill's!!!)

After the opening of gifts, we had brunch which was our usual fruit with dip, egg bake and sausage casserole - we decided that for next year, we do need to make double batches of the casseroles - the kids are growing up enough that we need MORE food!!

The guys decided to go ice fishing and we played some games and cards with the kids!

What a cute looking bunch of grand kids!!

The guys enjoyed their ice fishing and came home to a wonderful dinner of prime rib, cheesy potatoes, baked beans, crunchy coleslaw, crescent rolls and punch!  It was all SO GOOD!!!

And of course the girls and then the guys had their annual stocking exchange - it's always a lot of fun and I received a cute plaque to hang in my laundry room that has the LAUNDRY RULES on it!  Glenn received a box of hand warmers (which he used the next morning) and a visor with lights on it!  It's always fun to watch the guys - I think they're more into it than the girls are!!

By evening we were all winding down - the Savages left to go home and soon the Smiths left for their house - and soon we hit the sack too!!

Sunday Jessi and I slipped away for coffee - always a must when I'm in Denver and then on to church!  Jaime had to work - Gary had to work - and Glenn and Brad went ice fishing!!  I took Rayna to a movie "The Rise of the Guardians" and we both enjoyed it!!

More games - more food - the day was fun just being with the grand kids!  After leftovers for dinner that night, Jessi and I watched a holiday movie.

Since Glenn had so much fun ice fishing, I told him to go ahead and go on Monday and we would head home after that - so he and Brad went fishing again and I took the Keppys out for breakfast at Village Inn - YUM!!!

After spending 3 nights up in Denver, it was a quiet ride home and even MORE quiet at the house!  But quiet is good sometimes - and we were both excited when it started snowing on Christmas Eve night - driving to church that night in the snow was wonderful and we woke up to a beautiful Christmas Day, spent at home relaxing and watching movies!  It was a wonderful 4 day holiday!